So I just learned that the Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a letter to the US Navy instructing them to remove the bibles placed by Gideon’s in their hotels. Wait, what? Seriously. This is what they’re up to now?

I paid a visit to the FFRF website and found a page dedicated to this issue titled, ‘Atheists come out of foxholes to fight Navy bibles.’ Then there were some letters by former Navy people who were most upset and offended by the presence of a bible in a hotel room.

Okay, first off, they aren’t ‘Navy bibles’, they’re bibles that the Gideon’s donated and placed in the rooms. Secondly, it’s a fucking book. Does renting the room come with some military god squad who force you to read passages of this most offensive of books under penalty of death? Well no. Like any other hotel/motel there’s a bible in a drawer and if you choose to read it great, if not, no skin off your ball sack.

Take this letter:

‘Dear Director Bockleman,

I served in the active USNR in 1945-1946 and also in the Reserve from 1946 to 1950, with Honorable discharge. I wish to protest the Navy’s support of placing bibles or any other religious material of any sort in any facility associated with the Navy. And also, to extend this further while I’m at it, to protest any religious proselytizing on any occasion by Navy personnel under color of uniform. Long-held readings of our Constitution clearly preclude the Navy from participating in such activity, it should cease immediately, and in fact it should nave not been countenanced at any time in my view. And by the way I have held such a view for the past 75-odd years.

Sincerely,

Kennan C. Herrick (Jr.)

(Son of the late Kennan C. Herrick, also an Honorable Navy veteran.)

California’

So Mr. Kennan C. Herrick (Jr.) (part of the ‘greatest generation’) wishes to protest the placing of bibles or any other religious material in any facility associated with the Navy and he’d like to protest any proselytizing of Navy personnel while in uniform. Obviously, proselytizing while on duty should be taken on a case-by-case basis. Is the person doing the bible thumping going to withhold a promotion unless you come to Jesus or is it a case of two friends chatting and one want’s the other to come to church with him? If it’s in an official capacity then of course that should be condemned, just as it should in any business environment. If it’s the latter then it really isn’t any of Mr. Kennan C. Herrick (Jr.)’s fucking business.

As for the bibles in these rooms offending him? You know what offends me Mr. greatest generation? Knowing that my paycheck is robbed to subsidize your fucking retirement and knowing that as a forty-four year old there’s not a hope in hell I’ll ever see a nickel of the SS money I pay. Oh, yeah. I also happen to be offended by the Navy Tomahawk missiles that blow the hell out of infrastructure and kill people in far away lands that pose no threat to me, you, or the US in general.

Does it offend you Mr. Kennan C. Herrick (Jr.) that the President of the United States has given himself and those who follow, the power to issue a death warrant to anybody, anywhere, at anytime, and without ever providing a single document of evidence of criminal behavior?

How about another?

‘Dear Mr. Bockelman,

As a USCG Lt Jg. for 3 years I felt proud to help our great country protect itself and other worthy countries. As a non-believer it never occurred to me that any governmental agency would promote any religion whatsoever. Thus to find out the US Navy has been providing Christian bibles in its hotel rooms is a disgrace. Every person has a right to believe as they see fit and not be harassed by biased influence.

I expect to hear shortly that the US Navy has realized its error and has removed the bibles.

Yours truly,

James B. Gordon’

First James, I’m not entirely sure who you think you protected this ‘great country’ from, but lets move on. James says that it never occurred to him that any government agency would promote any religion whatsoever. Really? I guess James isn’t aware of the fact that Congress is always praying to their little God of Abraham before they decide to let whatever shithead happens to occupy the Oval Office bomb the shit out of little children in some poverty ridden country American’s can’t locate on a map.

Bibles in a hotel room is a disgrace James? Disgrace? How about lying to the entire world about non-existent WMD’s? How does being responsible for the death of half a million children sit on your disgrace meter James? If I recall Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright said that the death of those children was worth it to contain Saddam. Contain him from what? Taking back the oil America’s buddies in Kuwait were stealing from Iraq?

There are more letters and they contain the same juvenile and stupid remarks. Look, if the Navy engages in proselytizing the way the Air Force has been doing, by all means complain away, but shit, it’s a fucking book in a nightstand drawer that you can choose not to read.

I said before when FFRF decided to expose their left-wing political bias after the Hobby Lobby case that they used to be a dignified organization who were simply attempting to separate any official endorsement of religion. Now? They’re just a bunch of bitchy little progressives who can’t stand that someone, somewhere might take comfort in the rather naive and simple-minded stories in an ancient book.

The Constitution forbids the government or it’s entities from endorsing a particular religion. Allowing a third party to put bibles in a hotel room? Is this an official endorsement? Considering the Navy instructed it’s people serving Muslim countries to dress more conservatively (so as not to insult) during Ramadan and that most branches asked that it’s members not eat in front of Muslims (in the US or on US bases) during Ramadan, I hardly think little bibles that nobody is forcing anybody to read is an endorsement.

I have to admit that although I’m an atheist, I tend to find most atheists on the interwebs to be assholes. Check out the Amazing Atheist on YouTube. In his video’s, he attempts to knock down religious dogma and claims that religion is somehow disproving science. I surmise all of this, because I can’t really get through any of his videos. Why? Because the guy is a fucking arrogant shitbag who seems to not be able to communicate via regular speech. Instead he shouts, and calls people names. Sam Harris he is not.

It seems that most atheists out there in the internet world, though not in my social circles, subscribe to the asininity of political leftism. As opposed to the asininity of political rightism. Perhaps that’s part of the reason I don’t care to hang out with atheists on the interwebs or attend atheist talks and what not. Like their fundamentalist counterparts of the religious right, there a bunch of fundamentalist leftist assholes. As you may or may not know (or care) I don’t really like politics or people who obsess over everything political and to people like fundamentalist religious people and fundamentalist non-believers, everything is fucking political.

All over the internet you can find claims by atheists that we are more rational, more objective, and possessed with a gift religious people are lacking, namely, the ability for critical thinking. This, ladies and gents is pure nonsensical bullshit. Atheists are every bit as capable as being totally irrational as the most fundamentalist Christian. Ever read PZ Myers blog? Just bring up something that has to do with politics and this so-called rational thinking biology professor, becomes Sean Hannity.

In the past I’ve supported Freedom From Religion Foundation on a number of things. Usually, these were cases of overt religiosity in public schools or the use of public land for religious uses while discriminating against other faiths and those with no faith. This all has to do with public property. Tax-payer property. We all know that government, via the 1st Amendment is forbidden from promoting one religion over another and it’s in these cases that I’ve supported FFRF. Their latest… complaint comes from the recent SCOTUS ruling on the contraceptive aspects of Obamacare and the Hobby Lobby case. Please follow along.

The thing that upsets me most about the Hobby Lobby case is that it allows some religious beliefs as an exclusion from participation in Obama’s fascistic health care bill. I don’t want any fucking part of the inaptly named Affordable Health Care Act. I want to be excluded from this entirely. That’s not what the folks at FFRF want. They want everyone to be forced into this shitty, fascist program.

The people at FFRF have used the 1st Amendment as a guide post to forbid government from forcing creationism on public schools, and yet in this one simple case, they have shown that, although they know exactly what the 1st Amendment entails, they want to ignore it and twist it to suit their political proclivities.

“The Court’s decision, narrow though it might seem, has opened the proverbial floodgates. The Freedom From Religion Foundation needs your help to protest religious privilege and the federal judiciary’s appalling desertion of the founding principles of this nation.”

The bold comes straight off the FFRF website. The founding principles of this nation did not include the government mandating individuals, under threat of force, purchase a good or service from any given company or other individual. The founders believed in freedom of association which meant that government could not dictate who/whom we chose freely to associate with. No more. The tyrannical assholes at FFRF have shown their true colors and freedom isn’t among that set of Crayons. What FFRF should be protesting isn’t the fact that religious beliefs allowed some people to be excluded from provisions of Obamacare, they should be protesting the fact that Obamacare exists in the first fucking place.

What they’re saying is that because Hobby Lobby is owned by religious people they are somehow shoving their religion down their employees throats and denying women who work for them the right to control of their own bodies. This has to be one of the most fucking retarded claims I’ve ever heard and it’s a tad embarrassing hearing it come from an organization that claims to understand the law.

First, Hobby Lobby isn’t shoving their religion down anyone’s throats because if you don’t want to shop there, nobody is going to force you to. If you don’t like the fact that your paycheck is provided by people who believe in fairy tales, then you can quit or not apply in the first place. If you’re a woman and you want access to abortion (I mean contraceptives) then you can either pay for that yourself, or, I know this sounds extreme, not work for Hobby Lobby.

The folks over at the Freedom From Religion Foundation believe, correctly, that the 1st Amendment guarantees us the right not to have, by means of government coercion, religious dogma imposed upon us. However, they disregard completely the that nowhere in the Constitution does it say government has the right to force us to purchase a good or service and to dictate who/whom we choose to associate with. The FFRF may very well not believe in God(s), but they sure as shit have a religion and that religion is the vapid bullshitery of left-wing totalitarianism.

Over at Lew Rockwell, Laurence Vance had this blog posting about a former Navy SEAL that became a woman. The linked article, here, is from the Washington Times. I don’t know if it was cross-posted over at Drudge, but perusing the comments brings all the typical right-wing retardation we’ve come to expect. Once again, some ‘conservative’ has attributed liberalism with atheism:

So there you have it. Atheists, and I’m one of them, simply don’t believe in god(s). Any of them. Atheism isn’t porn, there is no soft core nor is there any hard core. Why can’t ‘conservative’ believers get this through their heads? What is so fucking hard to understand that about this?

Now to address the ‘most libs’ thingy. These figures are from Wikipedia so there’s that, but they’ll do for our purposes here.

“… 2010, polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats (tying a 22-year low), 29% as Republicans, and 38% as independents. By 2011 Gallup found that Americans identifying as independents had risen to 40 percent. Gallup’s historical data show that the proportion of independents in 2011 was the largest in 60 years. This increase came at the expense of Republican identification, which dropped to 27%, while Democratic identification held steady from 2011. Nevertheless, more American independents leaned to the Republican Party when compared to the Democratic Party. Combining leaners with each party’s core identifiers, for 2011 the parties ended up tied at 45 percent“

So, 31% of American’s identify as Democrats and just as not all Republicans will identify as ‘conservative’, neither will all Democrats identify as liberal. Let’s give Steve the commenter the benefit of the doubt and just call all Democrats liberals. According to the Census Bureau, in 2012 71% of 18 and older Americans are registered to vote. Lets round that up to 154 million of which 31%, or 47,740,000 are Democrats/liberals. According to the 2009 ARIS report produced by Trinity College which tracks religious trends in the US, 1.6% claim to be atheist. That’s the same number found on this Pew poll. Time for more math, the 2010 Census recorded something like 320 million Americans. Let’s assume that over the four years since we’ve added 20 million and round it up to 340 million. 340 million * 1.6% is 5,440,000.

Nearly 48 million Democrats/liberals and a whopping 5.4 million Americans are atheists. Not all of those Atheists are going to be Democrats but again, let’s give Steve the commenter a bone. Still, one can hardly conclude that the Democrat party in the US is a bastion of godless heathens when you consider this article over at Huff Po which details the sad fact that there isn’t a sitting member of Congress that has come out as an atheist. Let’s face it, Democrat or Republican, being an atheist has some serious stigma.

On to the morality bit. I’m sure they’re talking about the 10 Commandments and I’m not going to get into that. Watch the George Carlin video on YouTube to see the masterful breakdown. Anywho, the 10 Commandments are pretty fucking stupid and most Christians don’t really pay attention to them either, I mean, how many people are being stoned to death for working on Sunday? Decency and morality mean nothing to us and it’s up to the individual to decide what these mean. That’s the gist of the statement. No wait, that’s exactly what Steve said, but is this true?

The US is the largest consumer of illicit drugs and Conservatives loath illicit drugs use as totally immoral. Do you really believe that 5.4 million people consume all of the illicit drugs? The 2014 Global Peace Index placed the US at 101 of 165 countries. That means that out of 165 countries the US was the 101st safest. Not so good. Although violent crime in the US has dropped some 50% since the mid 90’s, the US is still the most violent developed country in the world. Are atheists the only ones committing violent crimes? That seems unlikely, in fact it seems pretty fucking preposterous. Especially when you consider that the Czech Republic, one of the most atheist countries on Earth, tied with Sweden for the 11th safest country on the GPI. And drugs have been decriminalized there as well yet there’s no considerable drug crime.

Are atheists the only people having children out of wedlock? Are atheists the only people having abortions? Let’s face it 5.4 million atheists are not the problem with this country. Speaking only for myself, I know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil for instance, as a libertarian, I believe it’s always wrong to initiate violence against others who haven’t done so to me. Republicans on the other hand seem to overwhelmingly believe that murdering foreigners in immoral wars is okey dokey.

Here’s the thing, Republicans/conservatives don’t have a monopoly on knowing the difference between right and wrong. They don’t have a monopoly on morality which is obvious since they still think G.W. Bush isn’t a fucking war criminal, and they sure as shit don’t have a monopoly on decency. So, Steve the commenter, fuck off. We follow the rules of society just like you dickhead.